POWAY, CALIFORNIA -- DO NOT USE THIS LOCATION! I am not exaggerating when I say that they have thieves for employees. I accidentally left my phone in the car I had rented and went to retrieve it approx. 2 hours later. I knew for a fact that my phone had been left in the rental car. ** at the front desk told me that the car had already been cleaned out and looked in a drawer with items I am assuming were left behind in the cars and my phone was not there.

He handed me the keys to the car so that I could double-check, but it was not there. He tried to get a hold of the employee that cleaned out the car, but could not reach him. We tried calling the phone, but there was no answer. I left my contact information with ** and he said that he would get a hold of me if he found anything. After not hearing from him for over an hour, I tried calling the office multiple times over the time span of about an hour, but there was never an answer.

I finally called the dealership in which the Hertz office is located inside of and asked if they could get a hold of someone for me at the Hertz desk and they did. I explained my situation and an extremely rude man snapped at me that he had just gotten there because ** had gone home sick and he would "investigate" and get back to me. At this point, I knew something wasn't right. After not hearing anything again for over an hour, I called back and the same man yelled at me saying that he hadn't had a chance to look yet.

I was sick of getting the runaround at this point and told him I would get the Sheriff down there to solve the problem. He hung up on me. I contacted the Sheriff's office and arranged for an officer to come with me to "Preserve the Peace." On my way down to the Sheriff's office, I received a call on my sister's phone (I left it as my contact number) from the man at Hertz asking which car I had rented and a description of my phone. I gave him the information not expecting much, but he called back 10 minutes later saying that my phone had magically appeared. I retrieved my phone and was so mad and relieved that I just got the hell out of that office.

I immediately noticed that the brand new charger I had gotten was stripped at the USB B end. There was a call placed (before I had it shut off), music was listened to and there was obviously no intention of my phone being turned in. The port on my phone was completely destroyed and I was never able to charge it after getting it back. I went for a week without a phone before I could get a new one, which ended up costing me $300 for the same phone as I was not due for an upgrade for another year. The state that my phone was returned in made it useless. I lock my phone now as I trust no one to be honest thanks to Hertz employees.

I will not be using Hertz again as a day rental ended up costing me an additional $300 for a new phone and the realization that customers cannot expect companies to employ people who aren't thieves. I have contacted the Hertz corporate office, but never received any correspondence. The employee who cleaned out the car I rented should have been fired for keeping my phone. Hertz apparently does not look down on breaking the law at work because I know many companies with a zero tolerance for theft in the workplace, whether it's committed against the company or customers.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Munich Hertz Rental Scam (Holiday Inn Location)

By Muenchner - 01/24/2010

MUNICH GERMANY -- Upset Muenchner. Munich Hertz Rental Scam (Holiday Inn Location). Warning to all potential rental car customers! I have been a Hertz Gold # 1 Club member for over 10 years and had no problems renting in USA until I picked up a car in Munich with 15 K miles in November of 2009 with minor damages on both sides and the front. After a week, I brought the car back to the Holiday Inn location operated by a rude single person who did not even bother to come down to look at the car in the garage. I had her stamp my prepaid invoice and walked away. Few weeks later, I noticed on my credit card charges of 429 Euros as 'Non Waivable Damage Excess".

My explanations about the fact that I never caused any damage to the rental was not accepted and they sent a frontal photo with a finger pointing to a white spot on the bumper which could hardly be seen (less than 0.5 cm). The car in the photo was unwashed and could also very well be dirt. In any case my correspondence did not solve the case and I am very bitter. I never thought that they could just charge any amount on my credit card and get away with it. I read in some blog that one should take before and after photos. What happened to good old days when everybody was trustworthy.

CORAL SPRINGS, FLORIDA -- It is to my disappointment that my trip to a wedding at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC was halted by the incompetence of your employees and and unsafe vehicle. It all began this morning where my reservation showed no need to confirm or call about my reservation but I was hoping that it be possible to pick up my rental car at 4pm instead of 5pm. I called the Coral Springs, FL Hertz office at 8am same day to ask the question. I was greeted by a gentleman who voiced that they were limited on vehicles and when I asked not only about the earlier time but if there was a possibility that a car would not be available to me as scheduled for 5pm; his reply was uncertain. This concerned me so I asked for a manager who happened to be on the other line.

I called back and got Jennifer on the line who assured me that 5pm will happen and check with her throughout the day for the possibility of an earlier time. It was not an option so I went to the location to find out that the vehicle "assigned to me" was at the Lincoln dealership because another employee mistook it and drove off with it. Thus to make everyone's life easier, I volunteered to go pick it up at the dealership and to my dismay a very busy attendant with no help who still needed to wash the car.

I waited because I was still on track for my plans to drive beginning at 9pm. He marked off a number of scratches to the vehicle but because he was taking note, I was not too concerned about the cosmetic aspect of the car. My next step was to pick up my husband on Commercial and Dixie to proceed home and pack up the car for our road trip that was planned months ago.

We drove on the I95 and at 55 miles per hour the car began to shake and made me concerned for my safety in embarking on an 11 hour drive. My husband also pointed out a dent in the dashboard where the airbag would sit as well as a loose door fixture and broken visor latch. Thus we packed up the car a after making various attempts to reach people at Hertz to be sent on a round robin through the switchboard. We then decided to take a trip to our nearest Hertz at the Ft Lauderdale airport as it was the only way we could communicate with a live person after filling the gas tank with 13 gallons for I received the car on an 8th of a tank.

I spoke to the manager of Hertz at the airport code 2012/FLFLA11 to receive the feedback that the faults that I experienced outside of the airport unfortunately are common to the stand alone locations. I gasped and asked that I be credited for my gas purchase and cancel the rental. She proceeded to still bill me $16.83 stating that she must bill me for the day as she generously credited me for returning the car to a different location. I was in shock because half of the 21 miles incurred in 5 hours was to get to the airport to return the unsafe vehicle.

I felt sad to have lost not only 5 hours of my time but missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to attend a wedding because my timeline was burdened by Hertz as well as over $1000 of unrecoverable costs for preparation and attendance in the wedding for both myself and husband.

If this were an episode of undercover boss. I would be embarrassed, ashamed and disappointed to allow the representative of my organization treat people this way and worst of all, compromise people's safety for a buck.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Worst Job in My Whole Entire Life!

By ryan.peacock462 - 10/14/2014

Rating: 1/51

DALLAS, TEXAS -- This company is simply a joke! I just recently graduated college and figured Hertz, would be a spectacular company to work for while leaving the job fair, words couldn't describe the overwhelming joy I felt, that I was about to start my career in an remarkable organized company that has plenty of incentives and great pay, but that was simply a lie. The sole focus of Hertz is "numbers" they don't care about their employees.

Yes, I understand when working for a huge corporation your sales/number are an important aspect, but employees require a lot of respect. It was almost like the company was setting you up for failure the moment I started. Working in sales all my life, I figured I would breeze through this job, but was I ever wrong. After my 3rd week alone at the store, they left at to run the WHOLE store by myself for a week, considering I had a total of 8 days total of "full training" I was usually washing or cleaning cars the entire day.

My area manager who had no clue on earth what she was doing (which got promoted into her position by looks) stopped by for a grand total of 30 minutes to check on me, she had more important things to do other than show the rookie the ropes, she felt confident I was smart enough to figure things out of my own. Before leaving, she basically said call the other branch manager if I needed anything. The customers who came to the counter always greeted me with a nice warm friendly smile, but after seeing their car, they came back in disgust. Our fleet only consisted of about 6 to 10 cars total throughout the day. These cars were beyond ragged out stains, musty odors, and high mileage.

I couldn't blame the customers for being outraged at the cars; they were spending their hard working money on trash. My response for the customers were "I'm sorry guys, but that's all we have." I felt horrible after repeating this line several times a day. Another complaint I would like to address is the over worked hours you get paid for a "professional job". I actually took a pay cut taking this job, it was ridiculous starting at 10.50 an hour. After taxes, you were literally making pennies!

The moment I opened my pay stub and saw the amount, the manager could see the dissatisfaction in my eyes she would always make me feel better by using the same scam. **, “It will be no time before you will get promoted and get to run your own store and make bigger bucks.” I would get rude responses daily by customers by getting numerous reservations throughout, the day and not having enough cars to supply them with. So they were basically in bad situation while trying to rent with us.

They had a few options go to Enterprise, the next closest place (which could be miles away) or call their ride back and be out of luck for the day, I particularly felt sorry for the people who had flights to catch. Lunches were interesting. There were days were I was so stressed out, all I would have to look forward is lunch, some alone and quiet time. I never worked a job where 10 minutes into a lunch, a customer calls your cell phone demanding you to get to the counter because he, they didn't have time to wait.

On numerous, occasions I had to throw my lunch away like a good loyal employee would do and meet the customer needs. This goes back to the corporation of course having an understaffed store; I now know why the turnover rate for my particular store was so incredible high 12 employees within in the last couple of years. So here is to anyone who sees a Hertz add, commercial, or billboard, don't feed into to their lies, this is not a good corporation to work.

You are wasting your time if you work for this company. It was a real eye opener for me on how such a so called "great organization" can be so unorganized. It left me at the end of the day feeling drain, exhausted, and stressed from dealing with so many unhappy customers. Not to mention I had to sell some bogus insurance to people and ask them the same question in numerous ways, even if they said no! For some people, they can't afford it but they put so much stress every morning on how it such a great deal, I not only felt if I was lying to the customer, but I was lying to myself ultimately.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Deceitful Business Practices

By Andrew - 11/05/2013

Rating: 1/51

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- My wife were planning a 2 week long trip to California so we booked a compact car through Hertz exactly 1 month in advance. We took advantage of their "Hertz 50 Plus" discount as we are both older. We chose the "pay now" option to secure a better rate which amounted to about $160. Upon finishing up the reservation online we received an email confirmation which stated no rate at all. We were needless to say a little suspicious.

When we arrived at the airport in SF about 1am after traveling for nearly 12 hours, the Hertz representative acted very confused and irritated and said that she was not familiar with this type of discount in spite of the fact that we had a hard copy of the reservation. She was back pedaling as quickly as she could. In order to get out of the airport with a compact rental we were essentially forced to sign an agreement for almost $900 for this 2 week period.

The next day I phoned the same Hertz counter and stated that I'd like to pick up a compact car today for a 2 week period and did not have a reservation. The price they gave me was $200 less than what they had presented to me the night before! What is going on here? I phoned the national branch and they were sympathetic. They reduced the rate to what would have been the "pay later" option when I initially made the reservation but this was still not fair.

I had legitimately put this charge on my Visa but my credit card company had no record of this charge. This has got to be the first time in my life that a Visa charge did not go through with an online purchase. I am currently attempting to dispute this over charge but what an uphill battle this has been. Hertz continues to utilize deceitful business practices and I can't believe that AAA actually endorses them! I will never ever do business with them again.

What a despicable company!! And here's the icing on the cake, the car broke down after a week and we spent an entire day waiting for a replacement. One day of our vacation was taken from us. Shame on Hertz.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Hertz Put Me on a DNR for No Reason Again

By SergioRodriguez - 05/19/2012

Rating: 1/51

I have rented from Hertz for the last 7 years. I was President's Circle about 5 of those years generating about 20k or more each year for Hertz. Last year I became Platinum. This April 24th I was placed on a DNR for an incident that happened on August 17th, 2010, almost 2 years later. I had a misunderstanding with a manager at the Ontario Airport. I did not curse at her or threaten her. I did not want a vehicle she tried to give me so I asked for something different.

She was rude and said no, and if I didn't want the car they had then I could leave walking. (mind you I am crutches for life). I told her that I didn't want to argue I just did not like the vehicle they gave me and I wanted a different one. Well long story short she went to the back and called the police and told them to make me leave because I didn't want the car she offered me. WOW. I wrote a letter and complained (3 pages of detailed information). I received an apology from the location Manager on November 18, 2010, saying she talked to the employees and was sorry.

The 20 something of November 2010 there was a request to have me on the DNR. I was DNR on February 7, 2011 for the incident, claiming I made unwarranted comments and threats toward a Hertz employee. I wrote an appeal letter February 19, 2011. The DNR was overturned March 1, 2011. I was fine after that, renting on a monthly basis.

Well now comes April of 2012, I needed a truck and called the Ontario Airport to see if they had one. A manager said he would try and locate one. He placed my name on the board stating a Platinum customer ** needed a truck. Well ** seen the board and flipped, questioning why I was able to rent again and that I should not be able to. So the location manager called the DNR and had me re added to the list. At this time I had 3 rentals out. One I was driving, my secretary the other, and the wife the other. I have fought and fought for Hertz to realize I was not in the wrong for the incident.

I provided document after document to prove my position. I have gotten nowhere! I tried dealing with the regional manager, nothing! ** at the main office over operations, nothing! My word against their local manager, but mine with supporting evidence.

This lady ** has some kind of Vendetta against me and I do not know why. But Hertz is being completely unfair towards me. Not sure what else to do. I do not like having me name Tarnished by lies. I am a great person, I volunteer with several nonprofit organizations, ex military and a mentor to many. I just want Hertz to do the right thing.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Treatment of employees

By leopard - 07/14/2007

UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON -- I actually have two informative complaints. The first is Hertz's deplorable treatment of employees. I worked for a Hertz in the Pacific Northwest, and from day 1 was treated horribly by a tyrannical, bullying boss. He wasn't even the branch manager, just an assistant. He basically did no work, had no customer contact (except to fraudulently boost his sales numbers) and treated me and any other new hire like we were subhuman.

Hertz later rewarded his horrible behavior by promoting him to manager. I was forced to work 60-75 hour weeks, sometimes 7-14 days without a day off. The managers would only work a few hours a day mon-fri. If I complained, I was threatened with a write-up. I was eventually promoted to assistant manager after a year, but I was honest with customers, and fair with my co-workers. I was constantly talked to by managers saying that I needed to be more "pushy" with my sales and told that sometimes "you have do to shady, backward things to boost revenue." When ordering cars for reservations, we have to call our city's fleet managers.

Often, when we had reservations for specific types of cars like suv's or pickups, or luxury, I was told by the fleet managers that there were none, and I had to make do with my tauruses or corollas that I usually had on hand. And even when we were low on regular cars, and I had to call fleet in order to have more brought in, they would just simply tell me that there were none, and I would have to turn people away, and to only rent the remaining cars to high level Gold customers. (After all, they were miles away in their large offices in admin, not on the counter when the out of luck customers came in.)

We were also not allowed to give out the phone numbers for the fleet managers to customers, or we would be suspended. Also, often, I had to back up Hertz policies to customers who were trying to cheat our rules, and was sold out by management. The customers were always coddled to, even if they were clearly in the wrong, and I was made to look like a schmuck. When it came time to get our commission each month, Hertz would suddenly raise its level of equation (the sales formula matrix we used for determining the level of commission we received for our monthly sales) making us ineligible for a dime of commission after we had worked extremely hard all month and usually had more than $20k in personal revenue.

When it came to quarterly bonuses, we had to sign a waiver stating that the company can withhold all our money for no reason at all if it chooses, so we usually didn't know if we would see our bonuses. Branch and upper management was a total joke. I once had an employee who was physically assaulted by a customer who was angry because he didn't give himself enough time to return his car and thus missed his train. The customer threw the keys at my employee, hitting him hard in the head, causing a large welt and bruise. The customer then called us all horrible names, and his reward from the manager was a free rental, and a voucher for a future rental.

The employee wanted to press charges, and was taken into the back office and chastised. He was later forced to quit when he did not let the matter drop. I myself was once so verbally assaulted by a customer, that I was physically shaken for days. The customer was upset because of the company imposed credit check on debit cards (not MY rule) and proceeded to call me an **. He also threatened my family and insulted everything about me including my physical appearance.

I was of course alone that day, as management decided to go to a movie and out to lunch with some higher ups. (I am a female and the location is in a large city.) I told the customer to leave or I would be forced to call police. The customer later called the city manager, gave him my name, and told him I had threatened HIM!! I was forced to write a letter of apology to him, and I was also given a formal write-up, and he got vouchers for free rentals. After the tyrannical boss was finally fired after three years, our new manager came in, and was not much better.

He scammed customers by upgrading them into the same class of car that they had booked, and also tricked them into buying coverage they did not need. He also once told me about our auto repair shop accounts, "Getting business from these accounts is of upmost importance. You know how these shop owners and managers are, they are crude. If you are ever sexually harassed, or they make sexual comments towards you in any way, just laugh it off and take it. Because nothing else is important as the money these shops bring into the store."

I was one of the lucky ones to do quite well in commission and bonuses, usually making between $80-85K a year (unique to our specific location. Most of airport locations ((called HLE's)) employees make around $30-35k a year). The problem was that I had learned the system and profiting off it to Hertz disadvantage. They offered me a "promotion" to an insurance company liaison for $26k a year, to which I turned down and told them that I was happy being an assistant manager for the time being. Within a week I was called to admin and told that my position was being eliminated.

I was told that I would receive unemployment (to which I was denied-big lie from Hertz) and that I would receive my unused vacation and sick time (to which I eventually had to threaten a lawsuit to collect). So suffusive to say, Hertz likes to kick their employees and kick them down some more. If you have children in college now (A bachelor's is required for employment at all non-airport locations.) Tell them to keep walking when they see the Hertz and Enterprise (not much better) booths.

My second complaint is to all of you self-centered, arrogant, crybaby, tantrum throwing customers. I have never met a ruder bunch of people who considered themselves adults and educated in my entire life. Just a word of advice, the world does not revolve around you. There are other people existing along with you. Standing in line is part of life. Get used to it. I know that you want a specific car when you make your reservation, but that is just not how things work in any rental car company, it is logistically impossible. Just take what you get.

They are not going to make you keep it. Hence the word, RENTAL!! If you don't like the deposit, extra driver fees, drop fees, underage fees, take public transportation or walk. Those things are just the rules and part of the rental process. Also, give yourself enough time to pick up and return your rental. I can't even begin to count the number of people who were always in an "extreme hurry".

Come on for christ's sakes, traveling is not efficient. And also, and this is the most important thing to remember, the person behind the counter is a college educated adult just as you supposedly are. Please treat them how you would want to be treated. And remember that most problems you have are probably completely not their fault (bad management, remember) and out of their hands to fix. And when you do have a problem, please try to be polite and cooperative, even if you are very angry.

When people were rude to me, I was rude right back. When people were nice to me, I went the extra mile for them, and even gave them big discounts and extras (such as gas, taxi credit, etc) for free. Besides, would you be nice to someone who was in your face screaming and calling you horrible names? I don't think so. And just one more thing. Hertz and all rental car companies are "for profit" businesses. They are not charities.

I can't think of the number of times customer complained about Hertz "just trying to make a profit off from them." DUH! I bet the company you all work for is in business to make a profit, isn't it. So just remember those few little tidbits, and your next rental experience should go smoother, because remember, the agents are being crapped on by their employer even before you walk through the door. :)

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Rent Elsewhere

By sean.p.coyle25354 - 04/02/2015

Rating: 1/51

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- Rent elsewhere. Using Hertz for my car rental services in Los Angeles a couple months ago was a major mistake. Let me start by saying that I travel often and use many different car rental services. Hertz was by far the worst one in every aspect.

A couple weeks after I dropped he car off and completed my final payment, I was sent another bill for a 'toll violation'. When I called Hertz to inquire, I was greeted by the single most condescending and arrogant customer service representative I have ever dealt with. The rude individual would not consider my side of the story, which was that I was not traveling in any toll areas. This person told me I should have noticed signs and told me basically what I should be noticing while driving.

Nice of them telling me what I should have seen and seemingly knowing exactly where I was. I was done with this person, so I attempted calling back and got another representative who took the same arrogant and undeserved superiority tone with me. These employees seem to talk to their customers as if the customers are lucky to be renting with them. Throughout this whole process, I was treated as though Hertz was my only car rental option.

Well, it is not and I will never use Hertz again. I could have handled paying whatever 'extra costs' I was stuck with, but to be treated in such a condescending way angered me.

When you are making your car rental choice, please remember that it is exactly that, a choice. Hertz would have you believe that they are the only option. They aren't. I urge you to look elsewhere. If by chance you have any billing inquiries, the company seems full of employees who are full of themselves and treat customers like villains. Rent elsewhere, you won't regret it.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Never Rent a Car From Hertz

By khockey23734 - 01/13/2015

Rating: 1/51

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- I will never rent from Hertz again. I had booked a rental in February 2014 for a rental car for December 26, 2014 through to January 1, 2015. When I arrived at the Orlando Airport Hertz desk they had to rental cars left. We were forced to upgrade due to having a wedding to get to. The Orlando Airport Hertz did not seem to worried that there were 40-50 people who had reserved vehicles when they had not one single vehicle at the location.

After being forced to upgrade because no cars being available, I phoned around on December 27th, 2014 to find a Hertz location to exchange the car into in order to get the car we were supposed to have because the upgrade was an insane amount. We were able to exchange the vehicle but were charged an extreme amount on the first car. I have been in contact with Customer Care and all they could do was 50% back which still puts us way over what the price of what we reserved at. They credited back to my account without my consent because they said I could try the Orlando Airport location and speak to a manager to see if they could do anything better for me.

After a week of trying to get a hold of someone at the Orlando Airport Hertz desk was not happening because they were not answering their phones. I called customer care back to find out that they had credited my account and now could not do anymore. I was told over the phone by the customer care representative who was a manager that me, as a customer, was wrong to argue about the issue and that reservation does guarantee there will be a vehicle there for you when you arrive. What is the point in booking a reservation then? I am 100% dissatisfied and I will never rent or do business with Hertz again.

Was this review helpful?YesNo

Replies

Review Link:

Acts Of God

By Carrie - 12/26/2013

Rating: 1/51

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE -- This is the worst car rental ever! When you check in at the counter you are given a key and told what stall your car is in. When I asked about having the car inspected before leaving I was told that they are not available, never used. NEVER TAKE THEIR CAR ON GOOD FAITH. When heading out of Nashville towards the Mountains the inside of the window had a run. When driving in the mountains the run went across the window. It was only felt on the inside.

It appeared to have started below where you could see it in the dash. We called the national number and was told that we could return it the next morning an hour away. Upon return a complaint form was filled out. When asked for someone to review the car, was once again told that it would be reviewed later. A key was given and told what stall to get a new car from.

Once again, no one would go over the car with us. We looked at it ourselves and found no damage to the second car. Here we are almost 4 months later and am now asked to pay for windshield. When complaint was reviewed with customer service and answers asked she kept talking over me and when asked why she wouldn't listen or answer me she said we already went over this. Was referred to my contract and told that any damage from acts of God, hail storms and such are my responsibility. She said she thought that driving in the mountains was an act of God. Go figure.

So I guess they are saying that I will rent you a car to go the mountains and we know something will happen with the altitude change so HA HA on you. You get to fix our car. WHAT a great way to have someone else pay for crap they don't want to fix. So, if a crack comes up on the inside of the windshield that starts below the rubber around it, guess what? You are screwed. Somehow Hertz rental customers are always screwed.